Think you’ve got a great idea for a children’s book but not sure how to go about writing it and getting it published? Children’s book author Peter Mandel will share the ins and outs of the world of children’s book writing at a workshop on Tuesday, March 19 at Sandywoods Arts Center.

A resident of Providence, he is the author of nine children’s books published by some of the top names in publishing including HarperCollins, Penguin, Scholastic, Henry Holt, and Hyperion. Over the past several years he’s shared his insider knowledge about the children’s book industry in similar workshops.

“When I started writing children’s books I found there’s an eternal flow of people who have ideas for kids books. My wife and I are always stunned at the number of people who have ideas for kids’ books. It’s stories they tell their grandkids or the grandpa who has three or four stories that he wrote and put away in his dresser drawer,” he said of how he evolved into children’s book workshop instructor/advisor.

While he said the majority of the people who take his workshops are smart people with good ideas who want to do the work of writing the book, he’s also encountered aspiring children’s book authors who have ideas for “t-shirts with their main characters and an empire of products, but when I ask them what’s the book about, they look at me and say ‘book?’” he said, adding he’s also had people say, “I’ve got a great idea, but I don’t want to write it.”

Unlike those parents and grandparents whose bedtime stories evolved into children’s books ideas, Mandel, who doesn’t have kids, said his stories are inspired by his own childhood growing up in New York City and “the stuff I loved as a kid — baseball, Willie Mays, construction work, the zoo. One of my books, ‘Zoo Ah-Choooo,’ is about a sneeze that gets passed around a zoo. If I try to write about stuff I don’t care about, I can’t,” he said.

He’s currently working on a book about “an old crank” in the era when radios first came out. “It’s about a guy who’s grumpy about his new radio. In a way, it’s like all the new technology that’s driving me up the wall,” he said.

His most recent book, “Bun, Onion, Burger,” (published by Simon and Schuster) was named a “Summer 2010 Children’s Indie Next Pick” by the American Booksellers Association. His personal favorite children’s picture book, “Jackhammer Sam,” (published by Macmillan/Roaring Brook) is about a city jackhammer operator, drawn from his childhood growing up in Manhattan. “I wanted to write about construction, but not trucks or the usual construction jobs,” he said, adding, “and the artwork (by illustrator David Catrow) is really cool.”

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In the children’s book workshops, aspiring children’s book authors learn that children’s book authors rarely work in conjunction with the illustrators. The publishing house book editor works with both the artist and the writer, and rarely does the author have input into the design of the books or characters. “That’s a question I get a lot. The publisher will send sketches, but it’s never been a bone of contention for me. I honestly believe the surprise and joy of seeing someone’s visual take (on his books) is a real positive in a stressful field,” he said.

An award-winning travel writer as well as a children’s book author, Mandel’s travel writing adventures have included experiencing polar bears in the wild in Manitoba, Canada, discovering his roots in Scotland, journeying by ship to Antarctica, floating in the mineral-laden Dead Sea, and writing about the experience of flying in a private jet. “A lot of travel writers sound like know-it-alls. I try to be the regular guy who goes to a prestigious locale and experiences it in a childlike way,” said Mandel of his work that has been published in magazines such as Coastal Living, Frommer’s Budget Travel, and top-tier newspapers’ travel sections. His travel features have garnered numerous Society of American Travel Writers Lowell Thomas Awards including adventure travel article of the year in 2006.

The trip to Antarctica in 2006 for a Boston Globe travel feature inspired an upcoming travel assignment in which he’s planning to cover a new Antarctica exhibit at Sea World in Florida and write about it in a humorous way.

Mandel will also be signing copies of his books at the workshop, which is free and open to the public. It will be held Tuesday, March 19, at 6:30 p.m. in the yellow building at Sandywoods, 73 Muse Way, Tiverton. for more information, visit www.sandywoodsfarm.org or call 401-241-7349.

For more information about Mandel, visit www.author-illustr-source.com/petermandel.html.